government shut down

So went to my once a year get-together/reunion with my old college buddies which we do in beautiful Gilbert, AR (population 33) on the banks of the Buffalo river. We golf, fish, float, etc (well yes, of course there are adult beverages involved) and just enjoy the quiet and commune with nature.

Unless the government is out of money and then, apparently, they just shut down rivers with Barrycades. As the guys said, we’ve seen more Wildlife Dept. people there to stop people from using the river than they’ve ever seen when it was open. I thought they were having funding problems.

Oh, by the way, we couldn’t have floated it even if we’d have walked around the Barrycades (which we obviously did to know this) – the flow to the river had been shut down at the dam as well.

National Park Service officials cited the government shutdown as the reason for ordering an elderly Nevada couple out of their home, which sits on federal land.

“Unfortunately overnight stays are not permitted until a budget is passed and the park can reopen,” an NPS spokesman explained to KTNV.

Ralph and Joyce Spencer, aged 80 and 77, respectively, own their home, but the government owns the land on which it sits.

“I had to be sure and get his walker and his scooter that he has to go in,” Joyce Spencer told the local news outlet. “We’re not hurt in any way except it might cost me if I have to go buy more pants.”

Similarly, the NPS forced privately-operated inns on the Blue Ridge Parkway to close during the shut down.

“We’ve been told to make life as difficult for people as we can,” an unnamed park ranger told the Washington Times. “It’s disgusting.”

It is indeed disgusting. And, it just goes to illustrate how much we’ve let government control our lives.

There’s a backlash in all of this. I’m not sure exactly how it will play out, but I can say that normally mellow men of my acquaintence who don’t particularly pay attention to politics were highly incensed this weekend. “How”, one of them demanded, “can government shut down a river that was here before man existed!?”